Québec-Italy: over 20 years of institutional cooperation

The Assistant Deputy Minister for Bilateral Affairs at the Ministère des Relations internationales, de la Francophonie et du Commerce extérieur (MRIFCE), Jean-Stéphane Bernard, and the Director General for National Economic, Cultural and Scientific Promotion at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrea Meloni, signed the Executive Program of the 8th Québec-Italy Joint Subcommittee (SCMQI) in Rome on September 24.

For over 20 years, the program has enabled Québec and Italy to strengthen their ties and exchanges through joint projects targeting cooperation in the cultural, educational and scientific and technological research sectors.

The 2013-2015 triennial will see 4 major cultural projects come to completion and exchanges of researchers involved in 9 science and technology projects. Ties between Italy and Québec are growing increasingly strong in the field of science and technology. Italy is the number 4 European partner of Québec researchers.

The following areas in the science and technology stream have been targeted by SCMQI:

Food safety

Agriculture and the protection of biodiversity

Food innovation

Smart cities and communities

Space exploration (earth observation and micro- and nanosatellites)

New materials and their production methods (nano- and biotechnologies)

As for cultural cooperation, the following sectors have been targeted:

Museology and heritage

Publishing and literature

Performing arts (theatre, dance and music)

Architecture, design and visual arts

The 20th anniversary of this collaboration was celebrated in 2012, which confirmed Québec’s concrete bilateral relations with Italy. This partnership has enabled many artists and researchers to successfully complete their work and raise their profile on the international stage.

Solid and productive collaboration

In 2015, Québec will mark the 50th anniversary of its institutional presence in Italy, a presence that enabled it to build a relationship of trust based on cooperation, innovation and creativity with a promising future, as evidenced by this cooperation program ratified by the central Italian government.